Hey Area: You ask, we answer.

Hey Area is a collaborative reporting project of KALW News. Using a tool developed by Hearken, audience members submit questions about the Bay Area. If your question is selected, you will partner with a reporter to find the answer. Read more about the project here.

Are there more crows in the Bay Area than there used to be? The answer is yes. For this short-answer segment, reporter Jurgen Klemm teamed up with veteran birder Alan Hopkins to learn why. Click the player above to hear the story.

Lake Merritt is often referred to as the Jewel of Oakland. By day, you can see fitness enthusiasts running and birds splashing in the water. But as the sun begins to set, the crowd thins out, and a string of 3,400 pearly light bulbs begin to glow.

A more accurate name might be Lagoon Merritt or Slough Merritt, as it's connected to the salty ocean water of the Bay. In this short-answer segment, reporter Jürgen Klemm dives into the history of Oakland's heart-shaped body of water.

Was the flagpole on top of Oakland's Tribune Tower designed as a mooring for airships? Listener Robert Weiner submitted this question to Hey Area, KALW's collaborative reporting project. Click the audio player above to hear the answer.

McLaren Park in southeastern San Francisco is home to an amphitheater, seven miles of walking trails, sweeping views of San Bruno Mountain and — according to listener Danny Yanow — some "giant birds nests." Yanow wrote into KALW's collaborative reporting project Hey Area asking what kind of birds built them.

When Heather Hernandez saw that KALW was seeking questions from listeners via Hey Area, she wrote in and asked, "Who has worked at KALW the longest?" We invited Heather to the station to interview some of our longest-standing employees. Steven Short — the original KALW newsroom volunteer — helped.

Navigation Centers are a new approach in San Francisco to move homeless people into housing. They’re temporary residences designed to connect people with long term housing and social services - without separating them from their partners, pets, or belongings.

KALW News is launching a new, crowdsourced reporting project called Hey Area. What is crowdsourced reporting? And how does fit in KALW’s mission? General manager Matt Martin sat down with reporter-producer Audrey Dilling and digital strategist Olivia Henry to learn more.